RATE OF ADOPTION OF AN INNOVATION AND FACTORS AFFECTING RATE OF ADOPTION

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2. G . Naveen Kumar
2013-11-193
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3. Rate of Adoption
• Rate of adoption is the relative speed with which
an innovation is adopted by members of a social
system.
• It is generally measured as the number of
individuals who adopt a new idea in a specified
period.
• So the rate of adoption is a numerical indicator
of the steepness of the adoption curve for an
innovation
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4. Variables Determining the Rate of Adoption
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5. Perceived attributes of Innovation
• Relative Advantage
Relative advantage is the degree to which an
innovation is perceived as being better than the idea it
supersedes.
• The degree of relative advantage is often expressed as
economic profitability, social prestige, or other benefits.
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6. Economic Factors and Rate of Adoption
• A new product may be based on a technological
advance or advances that result in a reduced cost of
production for the product, leading to a lower selling
price to consumers.
Example : VCR and Pocket Calculator .
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7. Status Aspects of Innovations
• One motivation for many individuals to adopt an
innovation is the desire to gain social status.
• Gabriel Tarde (1903) observed that status seeking was a
main reason for imitating the innovation behavior of
others.
• E.g. : clothing fashions and Harvestore in USA
• Status motivations for adoption seem to be more
important for innovators, early adopters, and early
majority, and less important for the late majority and
laggards. 7

8. Effects of Incentives
• Many change agencies award incentives or subsidies to
clients to speed up the rate of adoption of innovations.
• Incentives are direct or indirect payments of either cash
or in kind.
• Incentives have been paid to speed up the diffusion of
innovations in a variety of fields
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9. l. Adopter versus diffuser incentives :
• Incentives may be paid either directly to an adopter, or to
another individual to persuade an adopter.
• A diffuser incentive mainly increases the observability of
an innovation, rather than its relative advantage.
• E.g. : An illustration of a diffuser incentive is that paid to
vasectomy canvassers in India
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10. 2. Individual versus system incentives
• Payments may be made to individual adopters or to
change agents, or to social systems to which they
belong.
• For example, the government family planning agency in
Indonesia paid a community incentive to villages that
achieved a high rate of adoption of contraceptives
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11. 3. Positive versus negative incentives
• Most incentives are positive in that they reward a desired
behavior change (like adoption of a new idea).
• It is also possible to penalize an individual by imposing
an unwanted penalty or by withdrawing some desiderata
for not adopting an innovation.
• Example : The Govt. of Singapore has announced that if
any family had third child in their family they will not
provide any benefits to that family
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12. 4. Monetary versus nonmonetary incentives
• While incentives are often financial payments, they may
also take the form of some commodity or object that is
desired by the recipient.
• Example :
• For instance, in one state in India a sari with red
triangles (the symbol for family planning in India) was
awarded to each woman who was sterilized
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13. 5. Immediate versus delayed incentives
• Most incentives are paid at the time of adoption,
but others can only be awarded at a later time.
• For example, some Third World nations provide
a cost-free education to children of a couple who
have a small family.
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14. :
Incentives increase the rate of adoption of an
innovation
• Adopter incentives increase relative advantage, and
diffuser incentives increase the observability with which
an innovation is perceived.
• Adopter incentives lead to adoption of an innovation by
individuals different from those who would otherwise
adopt.
• Although incentives increase the quantity of adopters of
an innovation, the quality of such adoption decisions
may be relatively low, limiting the intended
consequences of adoption
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15. Compatibility
• Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is
perceived as consistent with the existing values, past
experiences, and needs of potential adopters.
• An innovation can be compatible or incompatible
• (1) with sociocultural values and beliefs
• (2) with previously introduced ideas
• (3) with client needs for the innovation
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16. Compatibility with Values and Beliefs
• An innovation's incompatibility with cultural values can
block its adoption.
• Examples :
• Eating food with left hand
• Miracle varieties of rice that developed from IRRI in 1960
gave attention to yields only and less attention to taste.
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17. Compatibility with Previously Introduced Ideas
• Compatibility of an innovation with a preceding idea can
either speed up or retard its rate of adoption.
• Example :
• Usage of tractors in Punjab in early 1960’s.
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18. Compatibility with Needs
• One dimension of the compatibility of an innovation is
the degree to which it meets a felt need.
• Change agents seek to determine the needs of their
clients, and then to recommend innovations that fulfill
these needs.
• When felt needs are met a faster rate of adotion usually
occurs.
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19. Complexity
• Complexity is the degree to which an innovation is
perceived as relatively difficult to understand and use.
• The complexity of an innovation, as perceived by
members of a social system, is negatively related to its
rate of adoption.
Example:
Usage of home computers in USA in early
advancement .
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20. Trialability
• Trialability is the degree to which an innovation may be
experimented with on a limited basis.
• New ideas that can be tried on the installment plan are
generally adopted more rapidly than innovations that are
not divisible.
• The trialability of an innovation, as perceived by
members of a social system, is positively related to its
rate of adoption.
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21. Observability
• Observability is the degree to which the results of an
innovation are visible to others.
• The observability of an innovation, as perceived by
members of a social system, is positively related to its
rate of adoption.
• Example :
• Hardware and Software of a computer in which hardware
is easily observable where as advancements in software
are not observable hence it has slow rates of adoption.
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22. communication channels
• The communication channels used to diffuse an
innovation also may influence the innovation's rate of
adoption.
• The relationship between communication channels and
the attributes of the innovation often interact to slow
down or speed up the rate of adoption.
• If an inappropriate communication channel were used,
such as mass media channels for complex new ideas, a
slower rate of adoption resulted
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23. Nature of the social system
• Norms of the system and the degree to which the
communication network structure is highly
interconnected, also affects an innovation's rate of
adoption.
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24. Extent of change agents' promotion efforts
• The relationship between rate of adoption and change
agents' efforts, however, may not be direct and linear.
• The greatest response to change agent effort occurs
when opinion leaders adopt, which usually occurs
somewhere between 3 and 16 percent adoption in most
systems.
• The innovation will then continue to spread with little
promotion by change agents, after a critical mass of
adopters is reached.
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